Werner Christie & Mustang

[Allan125]

By the 9th September the 3 Mustang III Squadrons of 122 Wing were based at B.60 Grimbergen, Belgium, continuing the armed reconnaissance's. This, however, turned out to be a very black day. Two Mustangs were shot down south of Apeldoorn, Flight Sergeant Abbott being killed when shot down, but Warrant Officer Bell was captured by Dutch collaborators, handed over to the SS and executed. On the 17th, the Squadron patrolled the Arnhem area to cover the great Allied Airborne landings.

It continued operating in Europe until, on 28 September 1944; the three Mustang Squadrons (19, 65 and 122) left 2nd TAF and returned to the UK.

122 Wing’s history stating:


“End of an Epoch


On 28th September the three Mustang Squadrons returned to England, amidst general lamentations, to carry out escort duties to day-raiding Lancasters. 122 Squadron had been with the Wing since May 1943, 19 and 65 just three months less. In that time they had become an integral part of 122, and had achieved some magnificent results.

Since D-Day alone the three Squadrons had destroyed 93 enemy aircraft, probably destroyed 5, and damaged 66. Their transport claims totalled 1185, locomotives 132, and barges 272, while with their bombs they had accounted for innumerable assorted targets.”


They were replaced by the Tempests V’s of 3, 56 and 486 Squadrons that had previously been 150 Wing, and returned to East Anglia to recommence bomber escort duties, with the occasional fighter sweep under the leadership of W/C William Loud DFC, DSO*, a former member of both 602 (City of Glasgow) and 19 Squadrons.


They became the new 150 Wing - and the 150 Wing squadrons became the air component of 122 Wing - joined in early October by 80 and 274 Squadrons of Tempest V's that had been operating with 125 Wing.

As I understand it Werner Christie replaced "Bill" Loud as WingCo Flying 150 Wing in February 1945.

Hope this background information helps?

cheers

Allan

[Fairlop]

Hi Allan,

Many thanks for confirmation. What´s your source for the 122 Wing’s history, book or ORBs ?

Regards,
Michal

[Allan125]

Originally Posted by Fairlop

Hi Allan,

Many thanks for confirmation. What´s your source for the 122 Wing’s history, book or ORBs ?

Regards,
Michal

Hello Michal

Post-war 122 Wing published two official histories - one "A short account of the operational life of 122 Wing, 83 Group" published at Flensburg on 7 Sept 1945 and "The history of 122 Wing, 83 Group, Second Tactical Air Force" published at Schleswig in November 1945, under the inside title it states: "A short account of the operational career of 122 Wing was published at Flensburg in September 1945. The booklet aroused so much interest among all ranks of the Wing, for whom it was intended, that this second, more detailed, edition has been prepared."

When 125 Wing disbanded, on 14 July 1945, Dad was transferred to 122 Wing (giving him a second tour to B.160 Kastrup/Copenhagen!!) and he stayed with them until they were disbanded,(hence he was issued with both booklets) before moving to Sylt as part of BAFO.

They were both published by J H Schultz A/S Universitets-Bogtrykkeri Kobenhavn - and I believe that this company is still in existence.

As far as I can ascertain, from official sources, no official history of 125 Wing has ever been published - hence my family project to do it, and I probably have more information about 125 Wing and its squadrons than anyone else - and several of the squadrons served in both 122 and 125 Wing.

Also, as far as I can ascertain, 125 Wing is the only 2TAF Wing to operate Hurricane IV's, Tempest V's, Typhoon 1b's and several marks of Spitfires during it's just over 2 years of operation. (But I am open to discussion if anyone can offer other Wings doing the same, or better.) And I still keep a watching brief about 122 Wing and assist where possible.

cheers

Allan

[SteveB]

Hi Franek

I would be interested to have confirmation of 316Sqdn being in a "British Wing".

As I have it 133 Wing (306, 315 and 129) moved to Andrews Field on 10 October 1944. Soon after on 24 October 315Sqdn moved out via Coltishall to Peterhead and was replaced at AF by 316Sqdn. On 11 December 129Sqdn was transferred to Bentwaters 'B' Wing and was replaced at AF by 309Sqdn to create a fully Polish Wing (306, 309 and 316). When 315Sqdn returned from Peterhead on 16 January 1945 there would have been four Polish sqdns at Andrews Field are you suggesting that 316Sqdn was perhaps transferred to 150Wing at that time to replace 65Sqdn?

Cheers

Steve

[ragnarec]

Tanks everyone for clarifying (?) comments. This is obviously far more complicated than I could imagine. Seems to be quite chaotic days in the beginning of 1945...

Regards,
Ragnar

[Stein Meum]

Lt. Col. Christie joined 150 Wing at Andrews Field on 11 Feb. -45. He came from 234 Sqn which he had commanded for a while.While commanding 150 Wing,there were several losses,mainly Polish pilots from 316 Sqn.

On 1st March -45 while providing escort to a Ramrod to Mannheim,the Wing left the bombers after the bombing and descended through clouds to find targets of opportunity to strafe. The Wing had been flying for over 2 hours over a solid cloudlayer and they were further east than expected when they came out of clouds over high ground.2 Polish pilots,W/O Ferruga and F/S Kamecki,were killed when their Mustangs crashed.Christie also hit the ground,had both wing leading edges perforated and the starboard stabilizer cut through almost all the way to the elevator,but returned safely to base. He was flying FB226 MT-K at the time instead of his usual "WHC". Anybody have the serial number of his personal Mustang III?

Christie blamed himself for this accident due to poor navigation on his part and,according to an interview I made with him in January 2004,he requested to be transferred to another Wing as he thought his leadership with 150 Wing suffered from this accident.He left 150 Wing for the Hunsdon Wing on 6th March -45. He died earlier this year.

Stein

[atckyrre]

Ahh.... expect Mr. Meum to come through for us whenever a question regarding Norwegians might come up.

Sooo.
FB226.. a rather famous plane in that it has been photographed and published in several books, albeit at an earlier stage. I've noticed that 122 Sqn seems to have used rather small code letters. Do you think that would be the case also in March '45? P'raps stripped down bare metal aircraft?
Email inbound.

Kyrre